article
Top 20 of 2011– Henry's Picks
Honorable Mention:
Indian, Guiltless
Top 20:
20: Skeletonwitch, Forever Abomination
Genre-less pure metal: 1982 Metallica, covering Iron Maiden, with Cronos singing.
19: Hour of 13, The Ritualist
Totally generic but awesome satanic Sabbath riff-worship.
18: Septicflesh, The Great Mass
Greek satanic death metal opera.
17: Dark Castle, Surrender to All Life Beyond Form
The most pot-informed Guru you'll ever meet.
16: Archenemy, Khaos Legions
The death metal QueensrŸche of 2011.
15: Exhumed, All Guts No Glory
Best non-posing death metal album of the year: pure metal fury.
14: Criminal, Akelarre
Sepultura on Crossfit: death/thrash athletes.
13: Landmine Marathon, Gallows
Straight-ahead no-nonsense death/grind.
12: In Solitude, The World The Flesh The Devil
The Ghost for this year; 1980s European heavy metal.
11: Rwake, Rest
Crazy screaming southern street preachers,
10: Atlas Moth, An Ache for the Distance
Innovative, creative psychedelic doom blues.
9: Earth, Angels of Darkness, Demons of Light 1
Drone masters return with a pure sheer weight and power that doesn't rely on aggression.
8: Anaal Nathrakh, Passion
Industrial black metal– the sound of foul things best left undisturbed.
7: Acephalix, Interminable Night
Crushing D-beat crust doom with RIFFS: Entombed, even further detuned, if they grew up on Agnostic Front, the Cro-Mags… and Candlemass and St. Vitus.
6: Yob, Atma
The modern shaman, summoning the spirits of the All World with riffs of doom.
5: Northless, Clandestine Abuse
Son of Godflesh and Crowbar– the sludge blues of major depression.
4: Lock Up, Necropolis Transparent
Grindcore supergroup goes (well) through their Dark Angel phase– fast and aggressive as fuck.
3: Fuck the Facts, Die Miserable
Beautiful, swelling, continually growing and changing punked-out grindcore: funhouse-mirror metal.
2: Revocation, Chaos of Forms
Progressive/death/mathcore thrash metal: the most most genres in one album this year– where all of them mesh perfectly.
1: Brutal Truth, End Time
The New New Thing– what Coltrane and Dolphy were to jazz critics in the 50s, this beautiful grindcore work of art is to metal.
